The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) will provide 10 undergraduate students with research experiences as part of its 9-11 week internship program. The students will have the opportunity to work with leaders in seismological research, to travel to exotic sites for fieldwork, and to produce research products worthy of presentation at large professional conferences. Intellectual Merit The approach will be to blend mature telecommunications technology and recent research on distance learning with the spirit of a traditional REU site. The resulting blended REU model will create novel opportunities for interns to more fully develop and express their understanding of the process of research. They will receive consistent professional development throughout the internship, and connect both in person and via technology to create and maintain a cohort experience while benefiting from the resources of the IRIS Consortium. This REU model has the opportunity to contribute to the growing body of knowledge regarding the application of telecommunications for distance learning, community building and the implementation of the skills associated with metacognition. The success, documentation and dissemination of this model will enable other organizations to apply geographically distributed resources to the development of their human capital.
